The stock market ended flat Wednesday with turnover fell slightly as investors took sideline strategy amid lack of clear direction of the market.
The market tuned positively lifting the key index of the prime bourse around 42 points within the opening hour of the trade. But soon it lost momentum and ended slightly higher.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange -- DSEX -- ended at 4,411.17 points, registering 9.28 points or 0.21 per cent gain. DSEX stayed above 'psychological' threshold of 4,400 points for the last three sessions.
The other two indices also ended in positive. The DS30, comprising blue chips gained 14.96 points or 0.92 per cent to close at 1,639.41 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went up by 3.76 points or 0.37 per cent to close at 1,016.67 points.
Turnover continued remaining above Tk 4.0 billion mark for the last six sessions. The total turnover at DSE stood at Tk 4.37 billion, registering a decline of 3.32 per cent from previous session's Tk 4.52 billion.
"The stock market logged a flat session reflecting uncertainty in the future market directions," said International Leasing Securities, in its daily market analysis.
The securities regulator and the finance minister held a meeting on Tuesday regarding the issue of reviewing some budgetary measures. The two bourses will also sit today (Thursday) with the finance minister with the same petition.
"Keeping all these issues in mind, the investors are taking sideline strategy," said the International Leasing.
IDLC Investments said, "The stock market managed to remain positive with the support of large and mid-cap stocks".
Investors were also materializing gain from certain stocks, while waiting to hunt lucrative opportunities across preferred segments, said the merchant bank.
In absence of any solid confirmation, they were a little bit hesitant and observing market-centric behaviour, the merchant bank added.
For the investors, there was couple of takeaway from the morning news. Following to the hint of Finance Minister to take capital gain tax at the individual level in consideration, investors might be igniting their expectation on scraping the tax on capital gain at individual level, said LankaBangla Securities.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 295 issues traded, 151 advanced, 105 declined and 39 closed unchanged on the DSE floor.
The financial sectors especially banks and NBFIs, among the big losers, losing 0.22 per cent and 0.58 per cent respectively.
Telecommunications posted a staggering 3.06 per cent gain which was mainly attributed to the heavy-weight GP which was 3.1 per cent up. Fuel and power gained 1.95 per cent. Food and allied and pharmaceuticals also gained 0.87 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively.
Cement disappointed the investors, losing 4.25 per cent as sector heavy-weight Lafarge Surma Cement lost 7.75 per cent alone.
Activities decreased in the major bourse (DSE) where trade and volume were down by 6.83 per cent and 7.89 per cent respectively. A total of 0.089 million trades were executed in the day's trading session with 84.55 million securities of trading volume.
The total market capitalisation on DSE stood at Tk 2,907.40 billion against Tk 2,896.34 billion in the previous session.
Lafarge Surma Cement was the day's topped turnover chart for the fourth session with shares worth Tk 404.57 million changing hands followed by GP, Square Phrma, MJL BD and BSRM Steels.
Fuel and power sector contributed the highest share of market total turnover, accounted for 14.28 per cent.
Progressive Life Insurance was the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 8.98 per cent while Lafarge Surma Cement was the day's worst loser, slumping by 7.74 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed marginally higher with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - gained 49.86 points to close at 8,410.21 points.
Gainers beat losers 98 to 85, with 24 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 7.41 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 276.18 million.
